By Helen Fay
The Leeds-based Man About Town project is bringing music to the community by holding a series of gigs at community centres and lunch clubs.
The project is a men’s mental health and suicide prevention initiative facilitated by Cloth Cat Music charity in collaboration with Creative Frame CIC. The project also runs a Sunday morning walking group at locations around Leeds.
The Music Group is currently based at the Lovell Park Hub and meets every Wednesday morning from 10am–12pm to play music and learn new songs.
The group started off as a ukulele group when back in 2021, one of the members of the MAT walking group said he could teach the others to play ukulele. Members took up the challenge and learned to play the instrument over the following years. The group has gone from strength to strength and now has a large repertoire of songs to play.
The group has played at Unity Day and also open mic gigs at the Pack Horse in Woodhouse. Group facilitator and Creative Frame director Jonathan Parker came up with the idea of taking the group out once a month or so to play songs at community based groups.
The first gig in the community took place at the Armley Helping Hands’ lunch club in Strawberry Lane on 1 May. The music went down well with the members of the lunch club and now the group looks forward to its second free gig in the community, which will take place at New Wortley Community Centre on 5 June from 11am at the Information Café. All are welcome to come along and listen to the group play.
The group are always on the lookout for new members at all levels of musical ability and anyone interested in joining the music group or walking group should contact Jonathan in the first instance at info@creativeframe.org.uk.
Also any community centres or other organisations interested in having the group play at their venue on a Wednesday morning should contact Jonathan at the above e-mail address.